County tax collector responds to criticism

San Diego  San Diego County has no incentive to withhold overpayments made by taxpayers, and public employees work diligently to return any money owed to property owners, Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister told a neighborhood group last night.

Not only that, McAllister said he has learned from recent audits that have uncovered improprieties and that he has implemented almost all of the recommendations made by independent reviewers.

“We always look for better ways to serve the public and to do our jobs better,” McAllister told about 50 people at the Kensington-Talmadge Community Association meeting.

McAllister was criticized by some county supervisors last week after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that he had buried an independent audit of his office completed in March.

The analysis concluded that the county wrongly held almost $8 million in overpayments and that data in the tax office had been compromised, including unexplained deletions of some records. The county paid $73,000 for the review, but McAllister did not release the document until it was sought by the newspaper under the state Public Records Act.

He told association members that he relies on audits to alert him to potential problems but does not routinely publicize their findings. He pledged to post future audits on his Web site.

Clare Colquitt, a professor of English at San Diego State University, said it was apparent that McAllister was trying to minimize any political damage from the publicity.

“Clearly, not disclosing (the report) hit a nerve,” she said. “He seemed responsive to the criticism.”